What's the point of a big knife?

[22-rimfire]

I imagine those large contains that were left were used for lumber and potentially a shelter from the wind.

The bear incident probably resulted in a meeting to discuss "what to do". The cameras were funny and I have to say, typical.

 

[macgrumpy]

I live in the mountains of Montana and I carry two knives, a Becker 9" Bowie type blade and a Leatherman OHT. The area I'm in has a lot of downed trees and trying to maneuver is pretty tough unless you can cut a lot of branches out of your way. The Leatherman is pretty good for just about everything else including skinning and camp chores. I've never needed that big 9" blade until I started living here, the deserts of Arizona (and a couple of far countries), and the plains of Kansas just didn't require a big blade but I still used two blades, a Becker BK2 Campanion and the same Leatherman.

 

[CopperFouling]

Great story, Steve Cover (and worth the momentary thread drift). Perhaps now we can devolve the thread into a discussion of what knife is best for bear defense. I jest.

 

[CopperFouling]

I live in the mountains of Montana and I carry two knives, a Becker 9" Bowie type blade and a Leatherman OHT. The area I'm in has a lot of downed trees and trying to maneuver is pretty tough unless you can cut a lot of branches out of your way. The Leatherman is pretty good for just about everything else including skinning and camp chores. I've never needed that big 9" blade until I started living here, the deserts of Arizona (and a couple of far countries), and the plains of Kansas just didn't require a big blade but I still used two blades, a Becker BK2 Campanion and the same Leatherman.

If you're chopping a lot, why not just carry a machete? Too much weight?

 

[CopperFouling]

But, yeah, if you for some reason are going to split heavy bone on an animal you're quartering, chop light wood for a campfire or notching logs for shelters, digging into hard ground, etc. -- and you're going to do it (or have to do it) with just that one tool, a bigger knife will do some of those things more easily than a smaller one.

What size knife (or even better, what knife) would you use for those tasks?

 

[Sam1911]

What size knife (or even better, what knife) would you use for those tasks?

Well now, that's a sort of loaded question and has a couple of answers.

The first answer is I don't think I'd really prefer to do any of those tasks with a knife if I could avoid it at all. Saw, hatchet, axe, shovel, pick, and so forth would do the job with much less effort and elegance. Similarly, moving up to a machete or bolo, parang, or Woodsman's Pal would be better for brush work than a knife, per se.



But if I HAD to, I might go with something like the wee beastie John and I cooked up a few years back:


http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=638588
http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=697485

 

[herrwalther]

Besides using a machete for jungle brush cutting, most other daily indoor and outdoor tasks can easily be done with a knife with a blade length of less than 7". And for most people 7" is pushing it anyway.

 

[Gun Master]

For chopping wood (or anything else), fighting with a short sword, or for plain old nostalgia, gimme a Bowie.

When in barr country, I just feel safer with an Arkansas Toothpick. (Extre long blade, if ya please).

 

[macgrumpy]

Sam1911 - the BK9 is similar to your knife


I like the versatility of a knife over a hatchet and with the right combination of characteristics it can chop just about as well as a small hatchet and still be used for knife functions. The problem with a hatchet is that to be useful you need length to make it work easily and that along with it's shape makes it more cumbersome to carry than a knife. A machete is too long and while a bolo is a better design for chopping its curved shape makes it take up more room than a straight blade. But to get a straight blade to cut like a chopper it's hard to beat a good old fashioned Bowie design, add some weight, length, and the right steel and it becomes a very nice compromise that can do almost anything...the BK 9 fits those requirements for me. If I find something that is as convenient to carry, chops well, and holds an edge like it does then I'll switch to it.

 

[Steve Cover]

I apologize for the bear story thread drift.
I didn't know where else to respond to.

Here are a few pictures of the knife I was carrying in Alaska and my second tour in Vietnam.











It is a Randal Attack Survival.

I originally bought it with the thought that I might have to cut my way out of a crashed helicopter in Vietnam.
I liked the idea of the hollow handle containing survival items because in a helicopter crash.
Usually the only survival gear that survives is what is attached to your body when you scramble out of the crash.
More than half the pockets of my flight suit in Alaska contained survival items.
Looking back, I am skeptical about the strength of a hollow handle welded on the knife.
All of my later purchases of "survival" knives (I collect knives) has been full tang designs.

Steve

 

[Steve Cover]

Modirators
I see no duplicate post.
Why am I being redirected back to this thread?

 

[JShirley]

Mcgrumpy, that BK is only similar in being large. It has different steel, different blade shape, different grind, and different handle shape and materials.

 

[Gordon]

Sam 1911 here is what your creation looks like after 2 tears use : It is not a Woodsmans Pal nor a small Swedish Axe , nor a ideal caping or skinning knife. It can do all and more tho and is quite handy size, the reason that that monster survival bowie still looks new.
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[macgrumpy]

I said it looked similar, I didn't say that they were the same knife, besides, I only have access to common commercial knives not custom knives, if I knew somebody that could make me a knife like that (at a price I could afford) I'd jump on it.

 

[JShirley]

Sam's knives are extremely affordable for a handmade knife, but he makes knives as a 2nd hobby. He'll usually offer a small batch maybe twice a year.

 

[Sam1911]

Hmmm, Gordon, it's taking a while for that patina to develop, eh? Sure looks good with some use on it!

 

[manithree]

I have one big Harbor Freight knife. It lives in my range bag and it's for slicing my clear ballistics gel. My leatherman blade is just too short.

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

 

[Steve Cover]

I have one big Harbor Freight knife. It lives in my range bag and it's for slicing my clear ballistics gel. My leatherman blade is just too short.

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

My Harbor Freight Survival Knife rides in the tool box behind the seat of my pickup.
Although it is very inexpensive it seems to be well made.
As an expendable tool, the price was right.

Steve

 

[dayhiker]

I am not currently much of a big knife kinda guy. I will use my 'hawk for most tasks others use their big knives for.

However, I do own a Ontario 498. Just because I believe everyone needs to own a USN MKII/Fighting Utility.

Also for nostalgia. As a kid I used a hand-me-down Camillus MKII as my play in the woods, carry all day in the summer knife.

A seven year old kid with a 7" knife on his belt might not go over so well in today's society though.

Times have changed.

 

[IWAC]

IIRC, my dad brought back a KaBar knife from WWII, and it had a lanyard ring on the butt, and about a 7" blade. I had a Navy issue knife...not a KaBar, which I promptly broke the tip off, trying to learn how to throw it. Blade, about 6" after I had ground it down to a drop point.

Large knives do look cool, but, they needed to be "standardized" ~7" back then, to reach through heavy winter uniforms, and that length is pretty well not needed these days, except for the coolth. And...nowadays, they do have their uses, IMNHO which can mostly be performed better by a good folding saw.

Still, I remember the line from A black and white WW II era movie...I think It was "At The Front", where Willie or Joe told a new fellow "If he's close enough to stick, he's close enough to shoot!"

 

[rcmodel]

It wasn't a KaBar with a lanyard ring in the butt.
They never made any like that.

It had to be an EGW (E. G. Waterman)

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=682064&highlight=EGW+knife

rc

 

[Traffer]

I asked my dad once when I was little (my dad was born in 1904) why they called them "pen knives". After the look of astonishment left his face he replied. 'Because they use them for carving pens". Indeed before the invention of the ball point pen was the fountain pen. Before that there were steel nib and QUILL pens. People carried a pen knife to carve their pen from a turkey quill. This has nothing to do with large knives but I thought it would be interesting.

 

[Piraticalbob]

If we don't carry large knives in appropriate places - - hiking in the wilderness, fishing on boats or ashore, on active duty in the military in war zones - - it's because we've acquired the habit of surrendering our freedom to authority figures, a sad state of affairs for Americans. There's a couple of organizations now fighting to get those freedoms back: Knife Rights and AKTI, the American Knife & Tool Institute. They've had a good deal of success already, but could always use more members.

 

[JShirley]

Bob, I disagree with your assessment.

Most people don't carry very large knives when hiking because perceived benefit is less than cost (weight penalty and bulkiness). Carrying a very large knife in a combat zone is the mark of a rank amateur, and I only saw green junior officers or ignorant lower enlisted without proper supervision do it.

It's also possible we define "large knives" differently. I didn't believe my 5" bladed knife to be large, but an 8" bladed knife would have been both large and stupid in the combat zone.

 

[herrwalther]

Most people don't carry very large knives when hiking because perceived benefit is less than cost (weight penalty and bulkiness). Carrying a very large knife in a combat zone is the mark of a rank amateur, and I only saw green junior officers or ignorant lower enlisted without proper supervision do it.

This one will make you laugh. I knew a junior officer, fresh out of IBOLC, who thought a 2.5 foot machete was a useful mission implement. In an area where your salty enlisted and NCOs are carrying a 7" Kabar at the very most, a machete looks downright funny.